Pope: Catholics and Jews can look to future with confidence

By The Associated Press

ROME - Pope Benedict XVI
said yesterday that Roman Catholics and Jews could continue dialogue and
look with "confidence" toward the future.

Benedict made the
comments in a note prepared for the 90th birthday of Elio Toaff, the
former chief rabbi of Rome who welcomed Pope John Paul II on a historic
visit to Rome's synagogue in 1986.

Benedict also thanked Toaff for
his work toward forging good relations between Jews and Catholics, and
said he remembered "with joy" Toaff's reception of John Paul at Rome's
synagogue in 1986.

The pope's note was delivered to Toaff at
birthday celebrations in Rome by Cardinal Walter Kasper, who leads the
Vatican's office for relations with Jews, officials said.

Toaff
said at the celebrations that he hoped ties between Roman Catholics and
Jews would continue under the new pope, calling John Paul's 1986 visit one
of the "signals that have carried on reinforcing themselves, and that I
hope will continue with his successor Benedict XVI."

Toaff was one
of only two living people mentioned in John Paul's will, along with the
late pope's private secretary.

"I have always believed that I was
an intermediary between the various religions because whoever believes in
God has a relationship with all those who think in the same way," Toaff
was quoted as saying.

Jews widely admired John Paul II for his
unstinting efforts to promote Jewish-Catholic reconciliation, including
his ground-breaking visit to Rome's main synagogue in 1986 and his 2000
visit to Israel.